Payrolls rose 165,000 in October while wages grew 3.1% in a year

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on November 6 in its Employment Situation release. The gain was larger than the average monthly gain of 48,000 over the prior 12 months. The unemployment rate has stayed between 4.1 percent and 4.3 percent since March, with 7.1 million people unemployed.

Where the jobs were

Professional and business services added 70,000 jobs, compared with an average monthly gain of 15,000 over the prior year. Professional, scientific and technical services added 33,000, administrative and support and waste management added 28,000, and management of companies added 9,000.

Health care added 42,000 jobs, compared with a prior 12-month average of 31,000. Hospitals added 16,000, home health care services added 11,000 and outpatient care centers added 5,000. Transportation and warehousing added 25,000, including 17,000 in couriers and messengers and 4,000 in air transportation. Manufacturing added 19,000, led by computer and electronic products at 7,000, with machinery and primary metals at 4,000 each.

BLS said employment showed little change in mining and oil and gas extraction, construction, wholesale and retail trade, information, financial activities, social assistance, leisure and hospitality, other services and government.

Revisions raised August to a gain of 186,000, up 53,000 from the earlier estimate, and September to a gain of 60,000, up 31,000. Together the two months were 84,000 higher than previously reported.

Wages and hours

Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm employees rose 14 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $38.00 in October, and were up 3.1 percent over the 12 months. For production and nonsupervisory employees, hourly earnings rose 12 cents to $32.75. The average private workweek was unchanged at 34.4 hours, while the production and nonsupervisory workweek fell 0.1 hour to 33.8 hours.

The most recent inflation reading is for September. The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7 percent over the 12 months ending in September, BLS said on October 14. Gasoline prices rose 9.1 percent in September alone, and the energy index rose 20.4 percent over the 12 months. The index for food was unchanged in September.

Who is out of work

The household survey showed these unemployment rates in October:

• Adult men: 3.9 percent
• Adult women: 3.6 percent
• Teenagers: 13.9 percent
• White workers: 3.7 percent
• Black workers: 6.6 percent
• Asian workers: 2.8 percent
• Hispanic workers: 4.7 percent

The Black unemployment rate was 2.9 percentage points above the White rate. The number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, was 2.0 million and made up 27.6 percent of all unemployed people.

The number of people working part time for economic reasons rose by 339,000 to 4.8 million. These are people who want full-time work but have had their hours cut or could find only part-time jobs. About 6.0 million people were not in the labor force but wanted a job. Of those, 1.6 million were marginally attached to the labor force, including 448,000 discouraged workers who believed no jobs were available for them.

The labor force participation rate was 61.9 percent and the employment-population ratio was 59.3 percent. BLS said both have shown little net change since January.

BLS will release the November Employment Situation on December 4 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.